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Installing the chargers will cost more than the chargers themselves. The program also covers insurance, maintenance and electricity. It is listed as a pilot, so somebody will have to be measuring things along the way and write a detailed report afterwards. For that matter, somebody was paid to come up with all the program details before they got to this point (which includes negotiating with site hosts and the car share company). They had to create a web site for registration and reservations; and something to monitor use and charging. If the pilot is successful, they will at least be able to reuse some of the software. If the program continues, the yearly cost will clearly be far less than the pilot program cost.

Still, I agree the total sounds high - I don't know enough to defend the cost of the program. But then, I don't know enough to condemn it either.

Ok, I get it, this is possibly to replace the default use of the minibus 'dial a ride' type of vehicle which, when you see one, typically has only one or at most two passengers in a bus with like 20 seats, big ICE vs Electric - an excellent idea.
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Ok, I get it, this is possibly to replace the default use of the minibus 'dial a ride' type of vehicle which, when you see one, typically has only one or at most two passengers in a bus with like 20 seats, big ICE vs Electric - an excellent idea.
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Click to expand...

It depends on your goal. If the goal was to clean the air up as much as possible with the money, then it was wasteful spending in an attempt to influence adoption of Sacramento as the "EV Community of Tomorrow" with the VW monies, which is another poor choice of funding allocation but is being pushed by the California Government, which, SURPRISE, is based in Sacramento. 8 cars will have no measurable effect. Cities are doing EV-share programs, Paris was when I was there, but not with $125k per car per year. In fact, they will soon break even. The EVs are cheap to rent, but there is a rental fee which normally amounts to about $10. Burger, fries, and a Coke.

If your goal was to provide transportation, you run into the same problem. A Uber/Lyft collaboration would serve more folk for less money. Or the norm, dial-a-ride. A bordering city to us spends $1m per year to service 160,000 riders. $208k additional funding comes from the Federal green program funding.

Projects like the 8 Car EV Fleet can give political action committees ammunition to reduce or halt EV infrastructure and EV adopt programs due to their exceptionally high costs per person-mile.

To achieve EV adoption by leveraging tax dollars into the fight, you need to 'fire for effect'. We know how to do this cheaply today, and need to focus at highly effective use of the resources to give the EV Adoption PACs ammunition instead.

It would have been an excellent idea if they figured out to use advertising income and corporate donations to fund most of it. Do 100 cars for $1 a year in administration, and have the rest come from non-tax resources.

It depends on your goal. If the goal was to clean the air up as much as possible with the money, then it was wasteful spending in an attempt to influence adoption of Sacramento as the "EV Community of Tomorrow" with the VW monies, which is another poor choice of funding allocation but is being pushed by the California Government, which, SURPRISE, is based in Sacramento. 8 cars will have no measurable effect. Cities are doing EV-share programs, Paris was when I was there, but not with $125k per car per year. In fact, they will soon break even. The EVs are cheap to rent, but there is a rental fee which normally amounts to about $10. Burger, fries, and a Coke.

If your goal was to provide transportation, you run into the same problem. A Uber/Lyft collaboration would serve more folk for less money. Or the norm, dial-a-ride. A bordering city to us spends $1m per year to service 160,000 riders. $208k additional funding comes from the Federal green program funding.

Projects like the 8 Car EV Fleet can give political action committees ammunition to reduce or halt EV infrastructure and EV adopt programs due to their exceptionally high costs per person-mile.

To achieve EV adoption by leveraging tax dollars into the fight, you need to 'fire for effect'. We know how to do this cheaply today, and need to focus at highly effective use of the resources to give the EV Adoption PACs ammunition instead.

It would have been an excellent idea if they figured out to use advertising income and corporate donations to fund most of it. Do 100 cars for $1 a year in administration, and have the rest come from non-tax resources.

Click to expand...

Low volume ventures always cost more per vehicle due to high overhead. I don't think Sacramento has the funds/support to launch something like BlueIndy (which is owned by the same company that did the Paris cars). So I'm guessing they want to try something out small first to see if anyone even likes the idea.

Low volume ventures always cost more per vehicle due to high overhead. I don't think Sacramento has the funds/support to launch something like BlueIndy (which is owned by the same company that did the Paris cars). So I'm guessing they want to try something out small first to see if anyone even likes the idea.

Click to expand...

For the same money, we can buy 160,000 low income resident trips.

Then comes the political policy fueled comparison:

"Using EV green technology we could provide 50,000 trips per million dollars. Using non-EV green technology (CNG) we could provide 160,000 trips per million. EV technology must be a dead end. Time to stop wasting money on EV programs."

I predict this will bite somebody in the ass. Hopefully is just another politico with their hand in the cash register, not an EV program.

If there is one thing nearly all Americans agree on when it comes to politics, it's that wasting tax dollars is bad. Sadly, that opinion is not shared by those who's opinions actually have effects, the elected officials, bureaucrats, and public employees.

But this pilot program could sponsor similar efforts in other communities all over the State, offering them a ready made template to jump in on. Or they could simply expand themselves into being a major arm of State government. Efficiencies of scale would certainly be possible especially regarding EV promotion. 'Try one, you'll like it!.' And don't forget the self-empowerment that derives from driving yourself from point A to B rather than being carted about by others. This could be a most effective vector against the almighty ICE political base.
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